As the story has it, one day I headed to the opposite side of the globe – the Flipside. I arrived in Korea February 16th, 2005 and thought I’d do a year, then leave. I was wrong. I stayed, launched my first company, Flipside Fitness, and then opened Korea's largest boxing club, Hulk's Boxing (now called Hulk's Club).

After 11.5yrs in Korea, I then picked up one day and returned to Toronto, Canada. But then I left again.

Now I live in the Philippines where I am the CEO and head coach of Empowered Clubhouse, the Philippines' first and only boxing clubhouse exclusively just for women. I also am the founder of the Lil' Sistas Project, CEO and designer of Slay Gear and Baa Baa Black Sheep .Ph.

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Celebration of Life & Love... Saturday, August 26

Two days ago it marked the passing of my mother and today marked the one year passing of another woman.  I've never met this particular woman who passed a year ago and up until moving to the Philippines I didn't even know she even existed.  But I've met her husband and I've met her family and in moving here they've adopted me as one of their own.  

Tonight a special service and dinner was held in honour of this Filipino lady who passed last year and I headed out of the city to be a part of it.  We all filed into this gorgeous little church nestled in the middle of a cemmetary that was absolutely gorgeous and breathtaking.  After the service we headed downstairs to were a dinner had been prepared for us all.  On my way downstairs, the husband of the late woman approached me.  He smiled, took my hand and then thanked me for coming tonight.  I told him thank you for having me here and as I smiled back at him I thought about my father and how polar opposite he's dealing with my mother's death.  

I felt happy for this man.  There he was, surrounded by a church full of family and friends who all came out to pay their respect and to show their support and love to him and to each other.  The passing of a loved one is hard but I thought it so beautiful for him to be surrounded by such love like this tonight.  When he had approached me he didn't look sad but instead looked grateful and blessed.  I know he felt supported and loved by everyone there and that was the point.

During the dinner I watched as he then got up, took the hand of a particular lady and then started to dance with her while the small band played.  When I inquired to those sitting at my table about who that lady was, they told me it was his sister.

Wow.

I thought that was such an awesome moment and so I pulled out my phone to capture it in a picture.

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